Hard chrome plating has been traditionally used on in many applications requiring resistance to wear and corrosion. The chrome plating process, however, has been asserted to present health risks to workers due to the presence of hexavalent chromium fumes from the plating bath. Recent OSHA mandate requires exposure to be kept to below 5 mg/cc.
Cemented carbide materials consisting generally of WC, WC/W2C or variations thereof in a Co-based or Ni-based matrix provide good wear resistance, and provide good corrosion resistance especially when including Cr or the like in the matrix material. However, these materials exhibit cracking and spalling when applied to hardened steel substrates.